what's the best deal, specs and place to buy a gaming computer?

my lap top is just too old to keep up without lag and looking for a good tower based gaming computer. i'd like to keep it around a grand but don't know enough about them to make a purchase on my own and don't trust salesmen. i'm sure i would need an I7 processor.

i'm bored and don't have any hobbies so i figured i would get back into computer games. any help is appreciated

re: what's the best deal, specs and place to buy a gaming computer?(Posted by ILikeLSUToo on 11/16/12 at 10:48 am to mooseknuckle)

The only correct response is to build it yourself. You will never, ever, ever, get a good value gaming computer from a retailer/manufacturer.

Also, you absolutely do not need an i7 processor for gaming. I personally have one but that is because I also do a lot of video editing/encoding, virtual machines, 3d modeling, etc. Games don't take advantage of hyperthreading. An i5-3570k would suit you perfectly. Hell, even the slightly older 2500k.

There are quite a few people here, including myself, who are experts in computer hardware and would be willing to help you out in selecting components and going through the process.

re: what's the best deal, specs and place to buy a gaming computer?(Posted by ILikeLSUToo on 11/16/12 at 11:06 am to mooseknuckle)

For complete simplification, just get everything from Newegg. Newegg is the cheapest 90% of the time. Occasionally another site will run a special, but rare that Newegg won't lower their price in response. A few brick n mortar stores run specials, but not around BR. I wish we had a Fry's or a Microcenter.

As for how long would it take to build? I can put one together in 15 minutes. For a first-timer, it might take you several hours, including time spent reading the manual and maybe watching youtube instructional videos. Hell, I'll build it for you if you want.

As for price. That completely depends. Some of us have sunk a couple grand into our computers, spending 500-600 on cooling alone. Others build perfectly capable budget gaming computers. There's no way I can give you an optimal configuration/part list without knowing your budget, what all you plan to do with the computer, whether you need a monitor, etc.

Give me that info and I'll grab some links to parts you need to fit your budget.

PSU CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W -- solid PSU, gives you room to expand/upgrade/overclock and even add a second 7850 if you want. LINK

Solid State Drive Kingston SSDNow V+200 KR-S3020-3H 2.5" 120GB SATA III -- Great value SSD for its performance. 120GB should be good for OS and a few games that would benefit from fast load times. LINK

Optical Pick a DVD burner. They are 20 bucks. If you even want one. Search Newegg or go to Fry's.

Case I'm not going to choose a case for you since the designs vary, and I don't know what your tastes are. Go here: LINK

The link should have them sorted by best rating. These are midtowers, so expandability is limited but not totally out of the question. Full towers cost more. I prefer them, but many others do not. You can expect to pay between $50 and $100 for a decent case. Pretty much anything on the first page of results is fine. I don’t have personal hands on experience with every single one of them, though.

Monitor 1080p monitors will be about $150 for the 21-23 inch range, and higher for 27” range. There are also the Korean IPS monitors for $350-400 on ebay. Just grabbed one myself.

Including a $150-ish monitor, this totals to between $1050 and $1100 after rebates and depending on the type of case you choose.

Additional Recommendation: Replace the stock cooler with at least a budget aftermarket cooler such as the Corsair Hyper 212 Evo ($30-ish), or you won't be able to overclock that k-series chip very much, if at all.